Entertainment

These musicians want to spread the joy

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Caleb & Sol and Just People use music as a vehicle for their beliefs

It’s a rare musician who would say he has no interest in moving people, but artists put varying degrees of emphasis on how message-driven their music should be.

By sheer coincidence, two local groups focused on having their music affect the way people live their lives have CD release parties this weekend.

Today, Caleb and Sol Rexius, the Eugene twins behind the duo Caleb & Sol, will release a debut CD with a concert at the Shedd. Saturday, Just People releases its third album at Oak Street Speakeasy.

The Rexius twins tell their stories through a Christian worldview and Just People is experimenting with an all-inclusive way of being, but the artists have a lot in common.

Although each act has its own reasons, they are giving away a lot of music for free. Neither CD release party has a cover charge.

Caleb & Sol’s “Afloat” and Just People’s “Rise of the Evolutionaries” are stylistically about as different as two acoustic-based projects can be. But the young men writing these songs share a humble approach and an earnest wish to help others.

Listen closely to their music and there is a great deal of philosophical overlap.

Accepting the calling

Caleb and Sol Rexius grew up in a family well-known locally through its business (Rexius Sustainable Solutions, a wood products firm in its eighth decade). The Rexius name is also familiar through the company’s philanthropic efforts and sponsorships.

For their part, Caleb and Sol, 24, have burnished the name as outstanding athletes at Churchill High School and then as members of University of Oregon football and track teams.

Now, the Rexius twins have something else in mind for the family legacy: music careers.

“I want to go big,” Caleb said. “I’ll deal with failure if it comes, but I want to strive for the best I can be.”

They think they have a shot one day at making a living through their music, but first they want to perform as much as possible and gain local support. They will explore other options as they arise.

“There are so many opportunities for you if you are willing to go for free,” Caleb Rexius said in an interview at a downtown Eugene restaurant. “You can really hit a broad audience.”

At this point, their backup band is on board with that philosophy. The group features Hunter Gray on drums, Scott Frantz on electric guitar and Marisa Frantz on violin and bass.

Both brothers have said the last thing anyone who knows them from high school would expect to come from their mouths is, “I’m a musician now.” But just recently, that began to be the case.

Growing up, music was never too far away, but neither had much experience performing in front of people.

Caleb was in the university’s a cappella group, On the Rocks, for a year after both brothers decided in their sophomore year to leave athletics. They were in a collegiate gospel choir, but a year ago is when the solo performance idea started to take root.

Something happened when they started writing songs; a lot of encouragement came their way. And the songs just kept coming.

The brothers ordered 3,000 copies of their first CD. At the pace they’ve been handing them out, they should almost be out of stock by the time of today’s show.

Not all of the songs are Bible-themed, but they all have a spiritual message. If “Rescue” or “Sunday” sound like love songs, it’s because they are.

But these are not romantic love songs. The musical hearts of these young men are filled with a desire to sing about God.

Sol is in graduate school in Portland with ambitions to become a pastor. Caleb works full time at the family business and wants to use music to spread his faith.

“It’s from your heart, and there’s so much emotion involved,” Caleb said. “To share your faith and what you believe, how you view God and how you communicate faith and grace through your lyrics, it’s almost more criticized and critiqued because so many other people share it.”

Religion is front and center

In order to appeal to a broader audience, some Christian songwriters are less blunt about what their songs are about. That is not, and won’t be, the Rexius style.

“I think as my songwriting skills strengthen, we will try to empathize with people from different cultures, backgrounds or walks of life,” Caleb said. “I made an effort on this album to do that.

“For us, we have a very clear calling. It’s really an evangelical tool for us. I have already seen things happening.”

People have shared personal stories about how the music has led them to deep truths about salvation, he said.

Caleb acknowledged that some people might just listen to the CD because one of the twins gave it to them.

“It’s somewhat of a bait and switch,” Caleb said. “Some people can listen to it and not be offended or not even listen to what we are singing about.”

Their songwriting process is still evolving, but the more they immerse themselves in music, the more refined it’s becoming.

“We both record stuff on our phones,” Caleb said.

He flipped open his phone and set it to video, which he said has better sound than recording to audio only. After he records an idea to the phone, he saves the snippets on his computer for future use.

Caleb & Sol might sing a melody or a lyrical idea into the phone, then shoot video of something in the surroundings that would bring to mind a memory of what spawned the idea in the first place.

The title track “Afloat,” which picks up on themes found in Matthew, came from 10 or so ideas Caleb collected from those voice memos.

“I am writing about man’s failure to stay afloat on their own strength, and how we need God to fill that role,” Caleb said.

Although as Caleb & Sol they have decided to have a singular focus on songs of faith, Caleb said he does not consider their work to be worship songs, exactly. But he doesn’t know what to call them.

The songs range from acoustic singer-songwriter fare to an almost spoken word, hip-hop style.

For something relevant in this economy to people of most faiths, listen to “Treasures,” inspired by Randy Alcorn’s book “The Treasure Principle.”

When Caleb wrote the song, he said he was struggling with the question of how “we as socially responsible people and Christians are supposed to handle finances.”

According to the Bible, the answer to this question is to store “treasures” in heaven, not on Earth.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” according to Matthew 6:21.

“I’m always making an effort to share,” Caleb said, “and you hope that people come to that same faith.”

For Just People, money is barrier

For Just People, the experiment continues.

Last year, the local band led by Scott Gilmore gave away music and band merchandise at a CD release party for “Yet to Be Named.” Now, the band is back with “Rise of the Evolutionaries.”

And it’s taking money even further out of the equation by not charging a cover for the show, giving away the music and not even passing around a tip jar.

“I feel like money, at this point in our lives, is constricting our development more and more,” Gilmore said in a phone interview. “As humans, it’s weighing down our potential to truly grow and to figure out the questions we are trying to answer. Money is clouding out our vision.”

Since last year, the band has aligned with the founder of the Cleu, a budding spiritual movement with Oregon roots. Its symbol adorns necklaces that will be available at the show for free, along with information booklets.

An online survey of people seeking an informational book on the Cleu says about 53 percent of respondents view the divine as the “universe in its entirety, all existence.”

On the Cleu, the largest circle, which contains three smaller circles, represents the universe. Inside the universe are two smaller circles, which look like the bottom two-thirds of a snowman; they represent consciousness and Earth.

The smallest circle, inside what would be the snowman’s torso, represents life.

“The Cleu has been a developing thing in my world,” Gilmore said. “I saw it around, and everyone who was wearing it was genuinely nice and caring.”

Many people in the Cleu family travel to Black Rock, Nev., for the Burning Man festival, a famously cash-free temporary city in the high desert.

Gilmore found much in the Cleu philosophy that lines up with what he’s trying to do with his music.

“They are trying to unify, trying to bond people together,” he said. “I see myself in 30 years in (founder Gian Anello),” Gilmore said. “Both of these movements can work together.

“It’s still on a very small scale at this point.”

The Cleu’s principles do not contradict ideas in other religions, but those who gravitate toward the Cleu tend to not have an exclusive worldview; 42 percent of those surveyed consider themselves “other” in the religion category.

“It’s a good conversation starter and a good way to bond with people,” Gilmore said. “It’s the first thing that is unifying people without trapping people in a box of what it means.”

The last Just People album had a catchy roots number called “Eugene.” This time there’s a song called “Country Fair,” which Gilmore said he wrote just after returning from the annual summer festival.

Just People’s music is not inherently spiritual, but has messages that echo what Gilmore speaks of as his values.The main idea in the title track is to “bring back the love into this world.”

“All I feel is that I am doing my best to help others,” Gilmore said. “The joy and happiness that I feel in my day-to-day life is something others don’t feel, and that upsets me.”

Although Gilmore, who was raised in a Christian and Jewish household, said his own spiritual path is a big part of why he does music, his music is not meant to push a certain religious take on the world.

“I do believe the base of every religion has it right, but I feel that the real message gets lost along the way,” he said. “I like the idea of all religions, but I don’t know why we have to pick just one. Why can’t we be all of them?

“I don’t feel like I know more than everyone. I just know that I am happy most of the time. And I am trying to put (my experience) out there.”

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Call Serena Markstrom at 338-2371 or send an e-mail to her at serena.markstrom@ registerguard.com.